They have hollow bones, made for the sky
by swisstony
Summary: Howard, Vince and Kitten in a park...warning contains reference to sunshine, ice cream and kites


It was a beautiful day.

The sun had decided to make an uncharacteristic appearance framing everything in a glowing golden August haze. The world had been punctuated by the sound of distant drowsy bumble bees, the out of tune melodies of a million ice cream vans, happiness and the drown of loan mowers. The combined scent of honey and cut grass had travelled along in the faint breeze.

Vince had been laying on his back one arm swung casually behind his head, while he'd stared up at the turquoise sky making shapes out of the puffy white clouds in his mind, and wondering why nobody seemed to make blue ice cream, and if they did _where _exactly they made it, _what _did it taste like.

He liked the summer it was his favourite season, everything seemed so much brighter, the sunshine always brought out the colours of his outfits and the shine in his hair. Plus it had meant that he wasn't always so cold, he didn't have to spend extra money on cloakroom tickets, and girls wore less everything. Howard was rubbish in the summer, he always complained about it being to hot, about it being sticky. How he couldn't sleep at night, and he was apparently 'too tired' to do anything but moan. Vince blamed it on Howard's cold Northern blood.

A shadow had hovered over him, he'd angled his head peering over the top of his sunglasses.

'Alright,' He'd grinned as Howard had flashed him a broad smile, Vince loved it when Howard smiled he liked the up turned wrinkles it created in the corners of his eyes, there were more of them now he liked that to.

Howard started to reply he opened his mouth but before any words came out, something jumped on Vince hitting squarely in the stomach winding him, he doubled up.

'Urgh, you weight a ton.' Vince chuckled breathlessly, as he'd sat up pulling Kitten onto his lap.

'You two we're gone ages.' He mused, his eyebrow quivered upwards as he'd spotted the traces of chocolate ice cream smudges in the corners of the little boy's mouth. A glance shifted between Howard and his nephew, Vince had pretended it had gone un-noticed.

'You better give it to him.' Howard had conceded as he'd flopped down onto the rumpled picnic blanket next to Vince.

'We got you this, I picked it out.' Kitten had informed thrusting a semi warm _Calypso _tube into his hand.

'Genius, it's my favourite!' He hugged Kitten tightly.

'So,' Vince had asked as he'd greedily torn at the top of the packet.

'…what happened to the kite?' Howard shifted awkwardly under Vince's knowing gaze.

'An evil tree kidnapped it!' Kitten had piped up excitedly jumping up onto his feet, Howard and Vince just indulgently laughed.

'An evil tree you, say. What was its demands?' Vince had slurped away at his lolly. Kitten had thought for a moment before he'd darted off in Howard's direction, Howard had whispered something in his ear. Vince never got tired of watching them together, the little boy brought out a different side to his friend a parental side, it wasn't hard to imagine Howard as a Dad, he would have made a good Dad.

'Total control over the remote, cus there's that docu…' Kitten had swallowed hard. '…documentary thingy on, and that you let Uncle Howard…tidy up your sock drawer.' He giggled at the last part.

'Well, those are some specific demands.'

'I'm bored!' The little boy had exclaimed restlessly.

'Alright, lets see what we've got in here to keep you entertained then.' Howard had searched through the back pack his sister had packed for her son.

'How about some drawing, you could do another picture of Vince?' He'd quizzed pulling out a sketch pad. Howard had tried hard not to let his jealousy seep through but he remembered when it use to be pictures of him, when Naboo would complain because he couldn't open the fridge due to the quantity of pictures clogging up the door. But now somehow all the pictures on the fridge are of Vince, his face pasted over the curling yellowing crude images of Howard.

'Boring!' Kitten exclaimed, the only other thing that was left in the bag was a football Howard had exhaled heavily exhausted rolling onto his back, Vince had studied him for a few minutes smiling.

'Yeah…genius…' Kitten had flashed Vince an excited grin, before dashing off with the bright yellow ball.

'I'm knackered.' Howard had mused lazily, as he'd stifled a yawn with the back of his hand.

'You're getting ancient, small eyes.' Vince had shuffled towards him resting his head on Howard's chest, he'd felt the older man's whole body tense and he'd rolled his eyes upwards.

'Howard, don't…he really doesn't care.' Howard's internal war had played out on his face.

'I just,' He started and then stopped frowning.

'And anyway this is totally normal, lots of Uncles and their 'best friends' do this sort of stuff. And they do other stuff like kissing and giving you an old grope.'

'Well you can forget about any of that business, Sir I'm far too tired.' Vince snorted.

'Tired? Tired, as if. You just lay there last night like some sweaty lump, I was the one who had to,'

'Not everything is about sex, Vince.' Howard had cut him short, Vince had mumbled something under his breath.

'What, what was that? Are you doubting the sexual prowess of the moon, Little man? Cus I'm telling you now I'll come at you like the mighty Sperm Whale when we get back to the flat.' Vince had fixed him with a mocking smirk.

'A beached Sperm Whale, more like.'

'Little man…'

'Uncle Howard, will you play with me?' Howard's gaze had travelled from his nephew down to the ball and then back again, he'd swallowed nervously knowing that all Moon's, well most of them, okay so just him had a defected gene when it came to sport.

'Give us it 'er, your Uncle Howard needs his rest.' Vince had leapt to his feet.

'Can you play football, Vince?' Kitten had inquired in amazement.

'Course I can, I'm a ragamuffin from the streets all my family are into football.' Howard had suddenly remembered how good Vince had been at football when they'd been at school, he'd been the captain of the team and he'd even had a letter about try outs for the professional local team, he'd never bothered going though. Howard had been amazed at the fact that Vince had actually kept the letter, he'd come across it accidentally lying in a shoebox when he'd been throwing Vince's belongings out of his life. He'd thought about burning it along with all the photographs of him and Vince, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

'I'm Vince Noir, footballing star.' Vince had announced mid way through a half a dozen 'keepie-uppies' without breaking a sweat or losing his control over the ball.

'Will you teach me how to do that, Vince?'

'Sure, I gotta pass on these skills to someone.'


End file.
